Richmond is the gateway to the Thames riverside parks, and the lime avenues and ancient oak pollards of Richmond Park — the largest urban national nature reserve in the UK — make it one of the finest bee landscapes in greater London. The Park's sweet chestnut, rowan, bramble and open grassland carries colonies from April through October, and Kew Gardens adds botanical variety that few other London locations can match.
Collectors in Richmond regularly attend swarms in the lime avenues and oak pollards of Richmond Park, in the garden hedgerows of Petersham and Ham, in the veteran trees of Kew Gardens boundary and the Old Deer Park, and along the Thames towpath between Richmond Bridge and Twickenham.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TW11BH· approx. 2 km
Visit websiteKT8 0AG· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteUB6 8TJ· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The capital opens early on crocus in the parks, then builds on blackthorn, cherry plum and Japanese cherry through March and April. The defining London flow is lime — avenues of common, small-leaved and silver lime line central streets from Regents Park to Bermondsey, producing the distinctively pale, mineral London honey of June. Bramble and rosebay willowherb fill brownfield sites and railway embankments, and a huge secondary ivy flow carries hives deep into autumn on Victorian cemeteries and garden boundaries.
More on beekeeping in Greater LondonReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
